by the lawyer Chaim Wilamowski

(Words of memory presented at the Organization of Stawiski
Émigrés on July 14, 1968.)

We have gathered together to
unite ourselves with the memory of our dearly beloved who did not merit to
arrive at safe shores and to be together with us here in our land. Without
doubt, they also  the unforgettable ones  have a hand and a portion
in the establishment of our land.

Enveloped in deep mourning, we
join ourselves together with our dear ones who were murdered with frightful
cruelty by Hitler's soldiers, the shame of humanity that forever stamped the
German nation as the source of bands of murderers. Until the last moment of
our lives, the terrible visions of millions of innocents being taken out to
their deaths, men, women and children, will never move from our eyes and our
memories.

Indeed, other nations also
sinned and acted with iniquity, in particular during the time of the war;
however in the bloody annals of world history, the Germans were the only ones
who prepared strangulation chambers, crematoria and speedy trains ready to
transport myriads and hundreds of thousands to the death camps.

Hitler slaughtered and the
world was silent. The power and brazenness of the Nazis flowed forth from this
silence that enshrouded the enlightened world. Therefore, the nations of the
western world are not able to wash their hands in innocence and to say that
they are not guilty in what the Nazis did to us. Even the Soviet Union bears
no small share of the guilt, for omission is also a deed. The world kept silent
because the victims were Jews. The silence that enveloped the world served as
a green light for the Nazis to perpetrate without concern their iniquity, which
has no equal in world history. There are plenty of proofs of the silence of
the western powers. I will only mention a few of them.

The American vice consul in
Bern sent a telegram to Washington on January 21, 1942, relating that every day
the Germans are murdering 6,000 Jews in Poland. He requested that his telegram
be transferred to Dr. Stephen Wise, and the content be brought to the attention
of the government of the United States and its allies. Three weeks later, he
received a reply from his superiors, saying, we advise you that in the
future, private messages will not be accepted from you, unless unusual
circumstances make this activity necessary. The explanation of the
matter is that the daily murder of 6,000 individual worlds
[2]
was not regarded as sufficiently unusual circumstances for the
government of a mighty power to transfer the message to an private
individual who happened to be the president of the World Jewish Congress
and the recognized head of American Jewry.

The allied powers, Britain, the
United States, and the neutral states of Europe refused to lift a finger to
protest the murder. The allied governments were requested to bomb the gas
chambers and crematoria in Auschwitz and other death camps, as well as the
railway lines that led to the valley of death  such bombs could have
saved myriads and hundreds of thousands; however eyewitnesses testified that
the allied aircraft bombed precise targets near Auschwitz and deliberately
avoided the railway lines, gas chambers, and crematoria. The governments of
many nations, large and strong, were fighting a victorious battle and had the
power to save, but they avoided doing so without any concern of conscience.

Not only this, but also the
thundering silence of the spiritual leaders of western Christianity, Pope Pius
XII and his assistants, can be considered to be one of the causative oversights
that expedited and encouraged the murder of European Jewry. The guilt of
genocide rests on them as well.

We cannot ignore the guilt of
the Poles, in whose midst we dwelt for hundreds of years and on whose behalf we
worked. They aided and abetted the deeds of murder and extermination. A large
majority of the millions of Jews that were killed were killed on Polish soil.
This was no coincidence, for when the Germans looked for a fitting
place to erect the death camps, although they had a large choice of countries
since most of Europe was in their hands, they chose Poland and set up most of
the death camps on her soil. The Jews were brought to these camps from all
corners of Europe, and in Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor and others they were
strangled with gasses and incinerated in crematoria. It is a sign of disgrace
for the Poles that it was their soil that was chosen as the site for the worst
crime in history, for the Germans knew that the Poles would see the
extermination of the Jews as their chance to free themselves from them.
Furthermore, these Poles also gained benefit from the murder of Jews 
they inherited their houses, took over their businesses and
pillaged their belongings.

Furthermore, the most well
known Polish and Russian partisans murdered in the forests the Jewish partisans
who had fled from the ghettos. When the surviving Jews returned to Poland
after the war, the Poles conducted pogroms with the frightening motto:
Behold, another one has fled from the furnace.

It was not only the gentiles
who closed their ears from the cries of the nation being slaughtered, but the
Jews also did not enough to raise the frightful alarm. The leadership of the
Land of Israel and the Diaspora hid the frightful details from the Jews of the
free lands and the people of the free world for many weeks. They were not
strong enough with respect to the allied powers. Nevertheless, this matter
will be finally decided by the historian who researches the archives of the
Jewish agency in the Land of Israel, England, and the United States, which are
still closed to the public. The president of the Jewish Congress and the
Zionist Organization already admitted the shortsightedness and dearth of action
on the part of the Zionist and Jewish leadership to limit the bounds of the
Holocaust.

With respect to the Jews of
Europe themselves  they were left without leaders at the time of the Nazi
occupation, for at the outbreak of the war all of the Zionist and non-Zionist
leaders, from the extreme right to the extreme left, fled to countries outside
of the Nazi occupation, and the masses of the House of Israel were left like
sheep without a shepherd.

Despite all this, the annals of
Jewish history from this tragic era also have chapters of might and resistance;
bright chapters that illuminate the darkest paths of our history, the days of
confusion, destruction, and hopelessness. For in those gloomiest of days,
those sentenced to death rose up with great bravery against the murderers. In
the ghettos, forests and inside the wire fences of the concentration camps,
Jews obtained weapons and fought against the murderers. This was the first
time in Jewish history that in days of darkness, during a time of destruction
and annihilation, Jews rose up on a strange land and fought with weapons
against their oppressors. Partisans and ghetto fighters went out to fight the
Nazis; one against a thousand, ten against a myriad, a Molotov cocktail against
a tank, a grenade against a cannon, and a rag dipped in benzene against a
conflagration. With these simple weapons, the Jewish fighters felled many
victims from among the Nazis and took revenge for the honor of the downtrodden
Jewish people.

Among other factors, the
Holocaust contributed in a significant way to the establishment of the State of
Israel. The compass that pointed for some time toward the nations of the west
for their abandonment of the Jews of Europe, the fate of the Holocaust
survivors, and the fight for the settlement of the Land  all joined
together and pushed for the establishment of the Jewish State.

Not only in the War of
Independence, but also nineteen years later, during the dramatic days that
preceded the Six-Day War, the Holocaust played a prime role in the preparedness
of the nation to conduct a fitting battle.

The European Jewry that was
exterminated was the spiritual future of the entire nation and of the community
in the Land. With the deaths of six million, Israel did not only lose a
physical potential, but also the powers of the victims to contribute to the
spiritual renewal of Jewry in our time. The loss of European Jewry is an
irreplaceable loss.

Translator's Footnotes
:

A paraphrase of a verse from the first chapter of the Book of Lamentations.
Return

Based on a traditional Jewish adage that every human being is the equivalent of
an entire world.
Return

{301}

The Holocaust in Stawiski

by the lawyer Chaim Wilamowski

The town of Stawiski lies on top of the hills on the highway
from Lomza to Szczuczyn. Prior to the Second World War, the town
had approximately 2,000 Jews, very few of whom survived the holocaust.

The Gathering Area

The Second World War broke out with the invasion of Hitler’s army
into Poland. When the Germans arrived at Stawiski, they gathered
all the men at the memorial monument, brought them into the church, and
transported them by vehicle to the gathering area (Stablage) in east Prussia,
about 50 kilometers from Grajewo. The aim of the Germans in exiling
the residents from their homes was to prevent resistance to the invasion.
The Poles were also exiled from Stawiski. In the camp, the Polish
soldiers were separated from the civilian exiles. People who succeeded
in escaping from Stawiski while there was still time and were later caught
in various places were also brought to this camp.

My late father David Wilamowski and my late brother Moshe, as
well as men from the Dobrzyjalowski family: Avraham, Moshe Yankel,
Moshe Chatzkel and 13 year old Chatzkel Berel were among those who were
captured and brought to the camp. Many of those incarcerated in the
camp died from various illnesses, primarily dysentery as well as hunger.
There was a German physician in the camp; however the remedies he
had at his disposal included only absorbent cotton and iodine. In
reality, the physician was only present in order to fulfil the obligations
to the International Red Cross. My father David Wilamowski became
ill with dysentery and rested in the tent that was set aside for the ill
until he died without having received any medical attention at all.
The Germans requisitioned ten men from among those imprisoned to come and
bury his body. Twenty people volunteered. In the absence of
burial shrouds, my brother Moshe took off his outer cloak and covered the
body in it prior to the burial. This was the tragic end of my father,
after he had succeeded in escaping with his family from Stawiski to Lomza
during the first days of the German occupation of our town.

My late sister, Babcha Wilamowski, describes the details of the
escape to Lomza in a letter dated May 5, 1940: “No person can imagine
how much he is destined to suffer. As I write these lines, pictures
of the past come before my eyes: the flight from Stawiski, the bombardment
of Lomza, and the escape from there as well. We fled along with father
last Friday. Shells exploded above our heads. As we shut our
eyes due to the sound of the bombardments, we awaited death at any moment.
We were starving in the barns. I held father in my arms for the entire
time, but I was not able to prevent his capture by the Germans. How
difficult is it to live in this world!!!”

In accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement, the area
of Bialystok was transferred to the Russians. Only then did the Germans
permit the many people imprisoned in the camp to return to the Russian
occupied sector. Avraham Dobrzyjalowski was in the first group who
were freed, and my brother Moshe in the second group.

On June 22, 1941, the German army overcame the Soviets, and the
section of Poland that had been under Russian occupation fell to the Germans
after heavy bombardment. Jewish young people retreated along with
the Russian army. The German airforce bombarded the retreating group,
and many were killed. My brother Moshe of blessed memory was among
those who were killed in the bombardment. He met his death in the
forests of Bialystok.

{302}

The Day of Blood

The Russian army retreated from Stawiski a few days after the
beginning of the war between the Germans and Soviets. Even before
the Germans entered the town, the local ruffians demonstrated what they
were able to do, and what was to take place to the Jews not only at the
hands of the German murderers. The first victims of the local Polish
neighbors included 24 year old Fruma Walder and Zeidka Gelbord. Both
of them were stabbed with knives by the murderers, who gashed their flesh
and spread salt on their wounds. Overcome by fear, the Jews of Stawiski
hid in their homes and waited with fear for the arrival of the Germans.
On Friday, June 27, 1941, the first German representatives entered the
town. The German murderers immediately made a brotherly connection
with the local Polish fascists. They were unified in their common
hatred of the Jews. The local ruffians had only one request, that
the Germans permit them to pass judgement on the accursed Jews. The
Germans were deeply pleased when they realized that they had faithful assistants
in this filthy war, and they gladly gave their assent to the Poles.
It was later related among the Jews that the Germans “limited” the number
of Jews whom it was permitted to kill to seventy. They granted a
short reprieve of life to the majority of the Jewish population.
Be that as it may, the open murder of the Jews began at the hands of the
Polish gangs, often headed by members of the intelligentsia, most of who
had only recently been released from Soviet jails.

On the first Wednesday in July 1941, known as “the day of blood”,
an edict was issued in the morning that the Jews, from young to old, were
to appear in the marketplace at noon for work. The atmosphere in
the town was very tense. The Jews felt that a great tragedy was imminent.
They did not know how to greet the face of the evil. At around 11:00
a.m., gentiles from all of the surrounding villages arrived in town with
iron bars and wooden rods in their hands. Before noon, the ruffians
broke into the homes of the Jews and chased them out with the warning:
“Jews, to work!”. Anyone who did not hasten to leave was beaten.
Women with their children, as well as the elderly, were forced to bend
down on their knees and clean the marketplace from weeds. The men
were harnessed to wagons laden with rocks. They had to transport
these wagons from the post office to the bridge over the Biebrza River
and back, accompanied by the hooligans. Cruel blows were administered
to anyone who could not move the wagon at the required speed. During
the time that the Jews were busy dragging the wagons, the evil people went
through the empty Jewish homes and took anything that they wanted.
At around 6:00 or 7:00 pm, all of the Jews were gathered together at the
“Pomnik” (a memorial monument). There, the head of the murderers
and leader of the ruffians, Jozef Wietszork, who was personally responsible
for the murders of dozens of Jews, gave a lecture to the Jews. He
concluded his incendiary speech with the well known Polish motto:
“Attack the Jews!”. Incited by the motto “dawajcie fury, zabierajcie
skory” (“bring wagons and take the corpses”), the hooligans fell
upon the homes of the Jews, took out men and women, and beat them with
murderous blows. They also used their iron bars and wooden rods against
any Jew who attempted to escape, for Stawiski was completely surrounded
by bands of ruffians, and there was no place to escape. Only very
few managed to evade the hooligans. When they returned home, the
beaten Jews found empty closets and beds. The ruffians pillaged everything.
The Jews realized that evil would come that night. Many recited
Psalms and the confessional prior to death, for they had a premonition
that their end was near.

At 11:00 p.m., farmers from the neighboring villages arrived on
wagons. Approximately an hour later, the screams of the victims could
be heard. The farmers broke into the houses and chased out the Jews
with the shout: “Jews, to work!”. However, when the Jews came
out, they were beaten with wooden sticks and metal rods until they were
murdered. Those that were killed, along with those that were hovering
between life and death, were loaded upon wagons, and brought to a place
outside the town where they were buried. A few Jews who had only
been wounded succeeded in digging their way out of the pits and returning
to their homes. In the morning, they began to search for one another.
There was great sorrow when it was discovered that so and so was missing
a child, someone else was missing a brother or sister, and another person
a mother or father. Dismembered limbs rolled about on the streets
of Stawiski, and pools of clotted blood could be seen everywhere.

The Germans allotted the farmers twenty hours to execute judgment
upon the Jews, and they helped them a bit with their iniquitous work;
however for the most part they were busy with photographing the riots.
This was not sufficient for them. On that day of blood, the Germans
organized a “performance”. They brought Rabbi Shmuel Nachman Wasserman,
the rabbi of the town, to the synagogue, put a Torah scroll in his arms
and ordered him to sing “Hatikva” [1].
Then they set the synagogue on fire and sent the rabbi into the burning
synagogue. A miracle took place: the flames did not engulf
the whole building at one time, and after the Germans left the place, a
noble hearted Pole, a builder by the name of Antony Nawieci, led the rabbi
out through the back door of the burning synagogue. He brought the
rabbi to his own home, where he spent the night. The next day, Antony
accompanied the rabbi to the Lomza ghetto, where he lived until November
1942, when the Jews in the region of Bialystok were liquidated. The
rabbi was brought to the Zambrow Camp and it is not known what his fate
was.

The first victim on the day of blood was a Jew who took his life
in his hands to save the Torah scrolls from the synagogue that had been
set on fire by the Germans. The second victim was a Jew who attempted
to save his property from the hands of the rioters. The following
were among those murdered that day: Yitzchak Piekarewicz, a 75-year-old
smith and his son Zelig, who had been hiding in the home of their neighbor
Rozensztejn at the time of the pogrom. Their heads were cut off after
they were murdered; Rachel Niedzwiedzka, 24 years old, who was in
her final months of pregnancy. She was brought out from her home
and taken to a place near the bathhouse, where her stomach was slashed
open and the fetus was taken out. With her fetus beside her, she
suffered the pangs of death until she died in a pool of her own blood;
They cut off the head of the fifteen month old child of her sister Chawa,
and they forced the mother to take her dead child outside the city, where
they murdered her with sticks. In the nearby village of Poryte, an
entire family was murdered and their bodies were tossed into a dry pit.
In the village of Zanklewo, near the flourmill, six members of the Calecki
family were murdered and their bodies were tossed into a potato field.
The cruel murders in the town inspired many Jews to search for refuge in
neighboring villages; however the villagers also murdered them.

The sisters Chaja and Bryna Czapnik, the Morus family (a father,
two sons, and an eighteen year old daughter), as well as many others were
similarly murdered.

{304}

Prior to the Establishment of the Ghetto

The pogroms and murders continued for more than a month prior
to the establishment of the ghetto, when the remaining Jews were imprisoned.
Those who were not murdered were taken out for backbreaking labor.
On the way to work, they were beaten with deathblows and brought low. Their
situation was dependent on the mood of the work supervisors. If the
supervisors were in a bad mood, work did not even save from death.
Many were shot as they were working in cleaning the streets of the town.
Herschel Mark and others were murdered as they were working. Jozef
Wietszork, known for his cruelty, murdered with his own hands the Jews
who worked in the village of Skroda near Stawiski. He murdered the
26-year-old shoemaker Avraham Yitzchak Fenik and Moshe Czerwinski, a 24-year-old
baker from Grabowo. 18-year-old Velvel Goldman was injured so badly
from his beating that he died one day after he was transferred to the Szczuczyn
Ghetto. It should be pointed out that the murderer Wietszork requested
from Hasoltys, the mayor of Skroda, that he provide people to help murder
Jews. Hasoltys refused the request, and fled from the village along
with other farmers.

A young lad named Velvel, the son of the smith Avraham Shlomo
Piekarowicz, was in Grajewo at that time. The Germans ordered him
to jump out from the window of the synagogue onto the street. The
hooligans from Grajewo waited below for him, and murdered on the spot anyone
who attempted to flee. After Velvel jumped out from the synagogue,
he ran toward the Jewish cemetery. He was caught by the Polish murderers
who were pursuing him. He was tossed into a lime pit near the synagogue.

The hell of the Jews of Stawiski did not last for long.
Death redeemed them from their afflictions and great suffering. On
Saturday, August 15, 1941, the mass murders began. The entire town
was surrounded by the Gestapo men. The executioners broke into the
homes of the Jews with wild screams. They chased everyone out to
the marketplace, where they were ordered to line up. The young people,
those from ages 15 to 40, were commanded to walk along the road to Poryte.
From there they were to go on a death march toward Nowogrod. Near
Miechowo and the village of Nienowice, the Soviets in their time
had dug anti-tank trenches, 6 meters deep, 3 meters wide, and 15 meters
long. These pits were destined to serve as mass graves for the young
Jews of Stawiski. The children who were not able to move quickly
enough were caught by their legs by the Germans and tossed onto the transport
trucks. The old people and children were brought to the Kisielnica
Forest, where they were shot in their necks and placed into pits that had
been dug. About 500 people are buried in this communal grave.

{305}

The Stawiski Ghetto and its Liquidation

After most of the Jews of Stawiski had been taken out to be murdered,
a few professionals whose services were in demand by the Germans remained
alive. These Jews also assisted the local farmers. About 20
professional families, numbering 60 people, were gathered together on August
17, 1941. These professionals included a doctor, shoemakers, sewers,
tailors, carpenters, smiths, etc. were included among them. The place
of the ghetto was set around the Great Synagogue, and after some time it
was transferred to the area behind the homes of Jeleniewicz and Zalman
Leibel. The area of the ghetto was surrounded by a few simple houses
in a place that was known as “the bent wheel” (Krzywe Kolo) behind the
Wilamowski homes.

The Jews in the ghetto worked for the Germans for no payment;
however life within the ghetto walls was relatively free. There was
no guard posted next to the ghetto, and the entry and exit was unimpeded.
The Germans and local farmers gave various tasks to the people of the ghetto.
The remnants of the Jewish community of Stawiski who lived in the ghetto
hoped that their lives would be spared because of the benefit that they
provided to the Germans in their work. A few Jews who succeeded in
escaping to the villages and forests during the time of mass murders came
to visit the ghetto on occasion; however these visits were fraught
with severe danger for them and for the people of the ghetto. The
Germans set a bounty for every Jew that was given over to their custody,
and the work of snatching Jews and turning them over to the Germans was
very fruitful. The farmers would receive sugar in return for the
Jews that they turned over to the Germans.

Life in the ghetto continued for a little over one year.
It was a life of work and want, and the thin ray of hope that perhaps they
might be able to survive provided them with the strength to remain alive.
However, on November 2, 1942, a drastic change of the situation occurred.
The Gestapo men surrounded the ghetto at night, and removed all of the
residents from their homes with shouts and beatings. The residents
were concentrated together and marched to the Bogusze Camp with their sacks
and children on their shoulders.

The Bogusze Camp had served previously as a concentration camp
for Russian prisoners of war, where myriads of prisoners were tortured
to death. The forests surrounding Bogusze were strewn with giant
communal graves of prisoners. The camp occupied a very large area,
and was surrounded by a barbed wire fence. It had trenches covered
with simple roofs that served as living quarters for the residents of the
camp.

Jews from Grajewo, Szczuczyn, Trestina, Augustow, and other villages
of the area were brought to this camp. It was clear that the Germans
intended to liquidate all of the ghettos in the vicinity of Bialystok.
The residents of the camp did not receive any food at all for three or
four days, and then they were given a daily allotment of 100 grams of bread
per day, as well as portions of potato soup a few times a day, totaling
½ liter per day. The famine was great, and those imprisoned
in the camp would gather around the kitchen to grab potato peels, which
they would swallow without even cooking. The death rate among the
residents of the camp was very high on account of the hunger and filth.
Every evening, they would gather the bodies of those who died during the
day and toss them into a pit. In the morning, they would bring the
bodies to the cemetery where they buried the Russian prisoners of war the
year before. Those injured and ill were shot immediately by the Gestapo
men, and the rest of the residents of the camp lived in the conditions
that were described above (if this can be called living), until December
15, 1942.

On that day, the liquidation of the Bogusze camp began.
The inmates were sent to the gas chambers of Treblinka, Birkenau and Auschwitz.
The inmates were ordered to leave the trenches in which they lived and
were brought to the train station, accompanied by beatings and shots.
The path was muddy, and the feet of those walking the path sunk in the
mud as they were being sent out from the life of hunger in the camp.
The journey was difficult for them, and anyone who lagged behind was murdered
by a shot. The entire path was strewn with corpses. Those that
reached the train station were pushed onto the wagons that transported
them to the death camps. When they arrived at their destination,
they were commanded to leave everything on the train and exit. There,
a few of the younger men were selected to assist the murderers in their
task of murder prior to meeting their own bitter end. Everyone else
ended up at the crematoria. On that day the furnace in the death
factory burned endlessly. This was the end of the Jews of Stawiski.

{306}

Those That Escaped

There were a few incidents were Jews succeeded in escaping from
the ghetto. The Indurski brothers, Velvel and Zeinwil, along with
Zeinwil’s wife Golda and their child, escaped from the ghetto and found
refuge with a farmer until 1944. One day, the farmer rose up and
murdered them all. Their bodies were found in the forests of Zawila
(near Stawiski). Feivel Chonkowicz and his family and Feivel Kadysz
with his two children also met tragic fates. At the time of the liquidation
of the Stawiski Ghetto, they succeeded in finding refuge with the farmer
Ridzowosky in Bajdy, near Stawiski. One farmer turned them in, and
they were all shot along with the farmer who saved them. Alter Brom
and his son met the same tragic fate. They hid in a village until
1943, and were murdered by the German gendarmes after being turned in by
a Pole. Mietszak Chonkowicz, his wife, son, and daughter, as well
as the grain merchant Perelowicz and his two children were also turned
in by the Poles and murdered by the German gendarmes. All of them
had escaped from Stawiski and hid in the forests. Luck did not shine
upon them and were exposed by the Polish fascists, who turned them in to
the Germans.

From the Rozensztejn household, former owners of the flourmill,
Yaakov Rozensztejn, his wife Liba, and their twelve-year-old son, as well
as thirty-year-old Avigdor Zalecki, the husband of Feigel Golombek, perished.
Feigel hid with farmers for four months after the liquidation of the Stawiski
Ghetto. Then she went out into the forests, where she lived until
Stawiski and its environs were liberated by the Red Army on January 24,
1945. Guta and Sima Stryjakowski fell on August 15, 1944 at the hands
of Polish partisans.

1. “The Life and Death of the Jews of Stawiski and environs during
the German Occupation” by Feigel Golombek (nee Rozensztejn), published
by the Woywodit Jewish Historical Committee, Bialystok, June 24, 1946.

2. “The Destruction of Stawiski”, Chapter 17 from “The Destruction
of Bialystok and Environs” by Dr. Shimon Detner, published by the Woywodit
Jewish Historical Committee, Bialystok, November 28, 1946.

4. A letter regarding the destruction of the Jews of Stawiski,
by Helena Laskowska, a Christian teacher in the elementary school.

5. a) Wednesday, the day of blood. b) The Stawiski
Ghetto, by Yehuda Kiwajko.

6. The Concentration Place, by Avraham Dobrzyjalowski

7. A diary, by Chawa Fuks (nee Rozensztejn)

8. The Grajewo Yizkor Book

9. A letter regarding the escaped from the bombarded Lomza by
Babcha Wilamowski.

{308-316 – The Yiddish version of the above section.}

{316}

The Destruction of Stawiski

by Rivka Zilbersztejn

It is hard for me to find the name of my birthplace Stawiski
on a current map of Poland – my town is near the regional town of Lomza,
surrounded by forests with tall trees that cover an area of several kilometers
square. There were also many orchards there, and when the spring
comes and the trees blossom, the pleasant aroma fills the entire town.

The Jewish population of Stawiski was small in number, but very
rich in its institutions: religions, cultural, and communal.
Before the eyes of my spirit stands the splendid Great Synagogue with its
engraved Holy Ark; the Beis Midrash, the shtibels, and the cheders in which
the Jewish children studied Torah, the Zionist organizations, and the libraries
where the youth would come to read books or to discuss books and authors
until late in the evening. Plays were performed in my town by the
Zionist organizations, and furthermore, there was even once a play put
on in the Beis Midrash by the students of Beis Yaakov, the Orthodox girls’
school that was founded in Stawiski in 1935. It is superfluous to
say that the Jewish populations enjoyed these plays very much and gave
the youth and the children – the actors – wild applause in return for their
entertainment.

In 1936, anti-Semitism heated up in Poland, and took on an aggressive
form. A large part of the blame for the incitement of anti-Semitism
lies with the priest. For on Sundays, when the priest would deliver
a venomous sermon against the Jews, the influence was immediately felt
outside. The Jewish merchants and artisans felt its influence.
When the incited Poles left the church, the oppressive atmosphere was immediately
felt on the streets. Guards were immediately posted next to the Jewish
stores, and big signs were posted in Polish: “Don’t buy from Jews”.
If a Christian would stealthily enter a Jewish store to purchase some provision,
the guards would pour kerosene on the merchandise immediately as he left.

The path of the Jewish students who studied in Polish schools
was not paved with roses. In accordance with the course of study,
the Christian students would hear a lecture on the Catholic religion from
the priest once a week. This class in religion was turned into venomous
anti-Semitic incitement. After this class, it was difficult for the
Jewish students to return to class, for every Christian child saw in the
Jewish child, who was his classmate, a child and descendent of those who
crucified their god.

It was also difficult for the Jewish children in that they were
excellent students. The principal of the school, the anti-Semite
Kotarski, could not make peace with this fact. On the other hand,
I remember with reverence my Polish teacher Helena Laskowska, who was a
woman of noble spirit, honorable, and regarded every child, without exception,
as a student and a human being.

Life became more difficult by the day, and the skies covered with
clouds. Passover approached. The Jews were baking matzos, and
in the streets, a wartime atmosphere pervaded. There were draft notices
and many Jewish young men were called up to the Polish army. The
Jewish parents were worried. Nobody knew which route to take – to
leave Stawiski or to remain. In 1914, during the First World War,
Lomza was more secure than Stawiski, for Lomza was known as a fortified
city. Nobody imagined that the Germans would come along with such
a plan of annihilation. People still remembered the proper German
from the First World War.

In the interim, the Second World War broke out. Jews packed
whatever belongings they could, and fled in wagons and automobiles to the
large cities. The home of Herschel Mark resembled a way station.
My father of blessed memory and other Jews attempted to pack up their merchandise
in order to send it to Ostrowiek (Ostrow-Mazowierka). They felt that
it would be more secure there, however my mother of blessed memory decided
to remain in Stawiski. She still remembered what it was like to be
without a house in 1914. Very few Jews remained in Stawiski.

The first airplanes crossed the skies of Stawiski. Bombs
fell upon the town. The yard of the poretz (town owner) was on fire.
The Germans shot three young “shkotzim” who were standing on the bridge.
The town was swarming with Germans. They immediately began to seek
out Jewish men, and gathered them in the church. All of the Jewish
stores were broken into. The Germans took the choicest merchandise
and loaded it onto their cars, and the Poles took the remaining merchandise
and loaded it into sacks. When they left their prayers in the church,
they felt that there first “mitzvah” was to pillage and steal the merchandise
of the Jews.

The Jews who were gathered by the Germans into the marketplace
near the church were commanded to crow like chickens and howl like dogs
all night. The next day they were taken off to somewhere, to a place
from where Wilamowski and others never returned.

The Germans captured the small towns one after another, but they
met serious resistance in Lomza. Lomza was bombarded from the air
and the fires that that broke out from the bombardment could be seen all
the way to Stawiski during the night. Many of the Jews of Stawiski
had fled to Lomza, thinking that there, in a large city, they would be
able to save their lives. The battle of Lomza lasted for eight days
until the Germans conquered the fortifications of the city. The Jews
of Stawiski returned to their homes. Some were captured by the Germans
and shot on the spot, and others succeeded in evading the eyes of the Germans
as they returned to Stawiski at night.

Dark fear pervaded in the city. A gentile would go through
the streets, ring a bell and declare: “Jews to church!”. A
German official issued the order. The Jews who still remained in
Stawiski, blackened like the bottom of a pot, left their homes open and
went to church. The Jews and a small number of gentiles stood in
the front, Germans wearing helmets stood behind. The priest delivered
a venomous sermon and accused the Jews of concealing weapons and shooting
Germans at night. This was not the first libel that was made against
us Jews. The Germans ignited the town from all four sides.

That day, in the afternoon, we returned home. From our windows
we could see the Germans standing next to the synagogue, removing the Torah
scrolls and setting them on fire. A blue flame ascended from the
burning scrolls, and they were not consumed. The parchment of the
holy scrolls burned for a long while. Until a late hour in the night,
when we peered out from cracks in our covered windows, we could see the
burning scrolls before our eyes. We saw in them a portent of our
destruction.

The next day, Chaim Kadysz-Kolinski came to me and told me that
the German official ordered us to open an office to register all of the
Jews who returned to Stawiski. In the Rywicki School, I registered
all of the Jews who had returned to the town broken and oppressed.
Who could have imagined at that time that this would be the beginning of
the murder of six million Jews, those dearest to us among them.

The German regiments pillaged the town. My sister and I
wore long dresses and hid in the cellar, and my mother of blessed memory
would bring us some food on occasion. Moshe Niska the wagon driver
returned to his home in Stawiski with his family. The German murderers
captured his two daughters and tortured them all night. Oppressed
and downtrodden, they returned home and took refuge in their grandmother
Rodka’s home. A rumor spread through town that girls were being sent
off to Germany for hard labor.

The gentiles took us to work in the yard of the poretz.
They commanded us to clean the lavatories with our hands. The famine was
great.

In the meantime, the political situation changed. Whoever
was able to left Stawiski on the horses that had belonged to the former
overseer of the poretz’ estate. The Germans left the town and the
Russians entered in their place. The Jewish communists danced outside
from joy – our liberators were arriving. We children asked about
the reason for this rejoicing. One of the people explained to us
that now the road has returned to us. The men were still in German
captivity, and the Jews were still suffering the disgrace of famine in
the town. Businesses were closed. The Russians opened a few
stores, and long lines formed in front of those stores in order to obtain
a piece of bread, a measure of salt, sugar or kerosene. Everything
was very expensive.

The town was full of Russians. They confiscated rooms from
wealthy homeowners. A few days later the prisoners returned – at
first the foresters and estate owners (poretz) of the neighboring region
returned, and later the Jews returned, including my father, Horowitz, Lejbik,
Chonkowicz, and others. All of them had been imprisoned in the prisons
of Lomza. Six months later, we were exiled to Siberia.

When I returned from Siberia, I thought that I would find my town
as I left it, perhaps as it was before the outbreak of the war, and that
my eyes would again see Jews dressed splendidly for the festival days,
young children hurrying off to school, and the adults – some in their stores,
others in their workshops, some on the platform of the wagon to Kolno,
Lomza or the “fairs”; that the fairs of Monday and Friday would again
be full of life; that I would meet again my friends from the past,
with whom I maintained correspondence from Siberia until the middle of
1941; that my legs would again take me to the cemetery to visit the
graves of my holy grandfather of blessed memory, of my grandmother whom
I had never met, of the mother of my father who was blind and who lived
in hour house for nine years, and that I might perhaps again see
Chaya Shlia [2] who used to sleep in the cemetery.

However, it was not to be, all of these things were no longer
there. They were only a dream. I never saw Stawiski again.
I was in Poland in 1946, however Stawiski was muzzled before me.
It was dangerous to travel there. I was not able to see my orphaned
town of Stawiski, and the homes of the Jews that were murdered by the Poles.
The ruffians Wietszork and his comrades who murdered Jews, who cut open
the bellies of Jewish women in public, who shot Jews who were hidden in
bunkers. One of the three Jakubcziner sisters, who hid in the home
of a gentile on the street of the smiths, was murdered after the war by
the gentiles.

Jewish life in Stawiski was no more. Crosses hung in the
homes of the Jews. Jewish boys and girls no longer bathe in the Sokolicha
River, they no longer congregate in the forest to read books and enjoy
themselves, and the Zionist organizations have disappeared. A small
number of young Jews survived the terrible Holocaust, chosen by G-d himself
to tell how the Jews of Stawiski were murdered with unspeakable cruelty.

{319-324 – The Yiddish version of the above section.}

A Brand Plucked From the Fire

As much as a person attempts to relate the horrific events
that took place to him under the dominion of the Nazi murderers, it is
not completely possible. For it is impossible to describe the tribulations,
fear, oppression, and spiritual and physical torture that was the lot of
these people. I will go out on a limb and state that a person who
did not experience the atrocities of this tragic-cruel era with his own
body is not able to comprehend it. It is even impossible for him
to believe that such events could take place, and that a human being can
experience all of the seven levels of hell and still remain alive.
Even though I know how difficult it is to transmit these ideas – I will
nevertheless attempt to describe to some degree those frightening days
that were my lot during that era that was full of atrocities.

Our town Stawiski was small in area and in population; however
it was large in spirit, and he righteousness of its way of life.
Its children loved their town as one loves a loving and dedicated mother.
Whenever its residents found themselves in a foreign place, they would
take pride in Stawiski and exult its virtues.

Pages of memories that were never written down are turning over
in my head, memories of joy and sadness, until the page of that cruel and
frightful era opens up. In the eyes of my spirit, I see realistic
images of Sabbath eves filled with light and happiness; Sabbaths and festivals;
long awaited Passover Seders that brought joy to hearts; the afternoon
hours of Sabbaths and festivals, when, after the toil of the six work days,
the parents went after the conclusion of the festive meal for a sweet Sabbath
nap, and the youth spread out in the roads in a joyous crowd – some going
for a walk and others going to the meeting places of one of the cultural
organizations. A mighty stream of exuberant youth poured out all
over town, and spread out on the streets of Lomza, Kolno, and Szczuczyn.

The pages turn with lightning speed, and before my eyes stand
the cruel and oppressive scenes of destruction, and the images of the martyrs.
Trembling trees with their tips bent to the ground, a stormy wind uprooting
them; and the terrifying cries that accompanied the Jews, men, women
and children, along their final journey. The souls of our ancestors
come down from heaven and hover over the heads of those condemned to death,
and cry with an otherworldly agony over the lives of their children that
were being cut off.

The pages of this bloody era continue to turn, and we stand before
unmarked communal graves of fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers,
children and babies who had not yet had a chance to live and had not sinned,
whose only sin that condemned them to death was the fact that they were
Jewish children. The stare of the toddlers was frightful as the fear
of death stared them in the face, as they embraced the cool cheeks of their
mothers. The tearful eyes of the Sarales, Chayales, Mosheles, and
Shlomoles were full of fear, innocent questions, and pleas.

May these lines serve as a flask for the tears over the communal
graves of the dearly beloved, which our eyes do not behold and our feet
cannot take us to visit.

In accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement, White Russia
and Ukraine fell under Soviet rule after the partition of conquered Poland.
Stawiski fell under Soviet rule already in September 1939. When the
war between Russia and Germany broke out in June 1941, the town was attacked
and panic ensued. Nobody knew what to do. Men, primarily youth,
decided to escape. However, to where does one escape? And how?
I was not able to personally participate in the various meetings that took
place regarding this subject, due to the position that I had held with
the Soviet authorities; however through my brothers Leizer and Moshe
and my brother-in-law Yisrael, I found out that we would be fleeing to
Bialystok. I turned to my supervisor and requested that I be permitted
to join the flight. He answered me with the following words:
“No, you will flee together with me, and you don’t have to worry.”
Since there was no choice, I remained.

The next day, many young men arrived in our town from Kolno, including
some Russians. Then my supervisor told me to prepare to leave Stawiski.
I immediately went home, took leave of my parents and sisters, and left
my birthplace.

On the way to Bialystok, we had to cross the Radzilowa.
There I met all of those who fled Stawiski the previous day, and we decided
to continue our flight toward Osowiec. When we were some distance
from the town, we saw it go up in fire, and we continued forward on side
paths. We decided to rest a bit after we crossed the forest.
However, just as we entered it, German airplanes bombed us. When
I got up from the ground, I saw that the bombs killed many of those who
fled. There was not time to care for the dead. I myself was
not sure if I was alive or dead. We had to continue onward.

When I reached the road that led to Bialystok, I saw two or three
dozen wagons laden with families of Soviet army personnel who were leaving
Stawiski. The wagon drivers were farmers from Stawiski and the neighboring
villages. The Soviets forced them to transport the wives and children
of the Soviet army personnel to Bialystok.

I joined up with this retreating transport. With them, I
reached a half destroyed bridge, which had apparently been severely damaged
by the bombs from the air raid on the forest. One by one and with
great difficulty, we crossed the bridge on foot. In Bialystok, I
found my brother and brother-in-law as well as other Stawiskites.
My brother Leizer and my brother-in-law Yisrael informed me that they were
about to return to Stawiski, since in any case, the Germans were approaching
Bialystok. They felt it was better to be together with their wives
and children. My brother Moshe and myself decided to remain in Bialystok.

The confusion in Bialystok was even greater than the confusion
in Stawiski. On the Tuesday following the outbreak of the war, it
was impossible to obtain a loaf of bread anywhere in the city. The
family with which I was staying did not have a slice of bread on that Tuesday.
By chance as I was walking, I found a bakery in the city which still operated
and which intended to distribute bread the following morning.

At 10:00 p.m., I arrived at the wooden fence that surrounded the
bakery. With great effort, I climbed the fence and approached the
bakery. I saw the workers engaged in their work through a closed
window. Some were working near the machine and others near the oven.
The aroma of fresh bread penetrated my nostrils and reawakened my appetite.
I knocked on the window. A man approached and asked with astonishment
who I was and what I wanted. Even though he spoke Russian, I immediately
recognized that he was Jewish. When I showed him my work permit,
which was similar to the certificate of that company, he opened the door
and let me in. I told him that I was a Jew, that I fled from Stawiski,
and asked that he permit me to help them bake bread. He told me that
all of the workers were Jews, and that in the morning, 1,000 kilos of bread
would be ready.

I heard them debating among themselves as to how to distribute
the bread in a manner that the bakery would not collapse due to the large
crowd. I advised them to turn to the captain of the city who would
send soldiers to keep the order during the time of the distribution of
the bread. The captain of the city sent only two soldiers.
We prepared notes, distributed them among those waiting and told them that
whoever would come tomorrow with that note would receive a kilo of bread.

As I went out to distribute the notes I suddenly heard a voice
calling my name. I turned around to see who was calling me, and to
my joy I met several Stawiskites: Fishel Mickucki, Fruma Wloder,
Chaim David Koplowicz, the two sons of Abba the porter, and others.
From that time, we met every day until the Germans entered Bialystok.
A few days later I again met Fruma Wloder and Chaim David Koplowicz.
They told me that they were preparing to return to Stawiski.

The Germans conducted their first aktion already on the first
Sabbath after the conquest of Bialystok. They captured 500 Jews and
took them to an unknown place. This first German action became known
as “the Sabbath aktion”.

When the Bialystok ghetto was established, my brother Moshe, myself,
and the uncle of my brother-in-law lived together in a two-room apartment.
Moshe decided to bring his friend Anna Liba Goldsztejn from Stawiski (her
father was the brother of Hertzka Goldsztejn). She came to Bialystok
along with her mother and her younger brother.

My brother and I worked in a clothing factory in the ghetto.
After some time, they began to send the men out to various work camps.
One day, we both received a notice to present ourselves at the work office.
We went to Mendel Goldflam who worked in the Judenrat and asked for his
advice as to what to do. He immediately prepared for us two certificates
with various names. We did not present ourselves at the work office
on the designated day. As we were eating breakfast, a guard suddenly
appeared accompanied by the person responsible for the house and asked
for my name. I showed him my certificate, as did my brother Moshe.
The guard asked about the Cheslok brothers and there whereabouts.
The aunt of my brother-in-law was surprised and was not able to utter a
sound from her mouth. Nevertheless, Anna Liba did not lose her composure
and she answered: “Indeed the Cheslok brothers did live here, but
they left and we do not know their whereabouts.” To our good fortune,
the owner of the house was silent about the fact that he knew us, and he
did not turn us in.

Thus did we succeed in eluding the Gestapo and remaining in the
ghetto. However, this was not to be for a long period. The
time for the liquidation of the Bialystok ghetto was rapidly approaching.
I succeeded in being counted among the workers who were sent to work in
the Bialystok prison.

I was not present when the revolt broke out in the ghetto, and
I do not know what became of my brother Moshe. After a few weeks
of working in the prison, the Germans decided to send us to a camp.
We were brought to Lublin, and from there to Treblinka. From Treblinka
we were sent to the Blazin work camp near Radom. My joy was great
when I found my brother Moshe of blessed memory in the work camp.
We then remained together for close to a year. We were sent to Auschwitz
when the camp was liquidated. There we were separated, for we were
each sent to a different block. When a transport was being sent out
for another camp, my brother Moshe volunteered to be included in it.
They accepted him but not me. We were again separated, and I again
lost track my brother. When the Germans began to liquidate Auschwitz,
they transferred me to a camp by the name of Liba Roza in Germany.

A few weeks later, they brought additional transports to that
camp, and my brother Moshe was on one of them. We remained in Liba
Roza for three months, and from there we were transferred to Grossrosen.
There I was again separated from my brother, and I never saw him again
after that. They sent me to the well-known camp of Mauthausan in Austria.

On one cloudy day when we did not go out to work, we saw through
the barbed wire fence that separated us from the women’s camp that a group
of women had portions of food in their hands. Many of them ate the
bread and other victuals with a great appetite. We knew that this
was their final journey. They went in peace to the gas chamber without
being accompanied by a kapo or by an S.S. man. The scene was frightful,
and tears welled up in our eyes. They looked at us, and to our great
surprise we did not notice any emotion on their faces, even though they
knew that this was their final journey. They made peace with their
fate, and realized that tears and sighs would not change their verdict.
Until this day I can see before they eyes of my spirit this group of women
going in stoic peace along their final journey.

I was liberated from Mauthausen by the Russian army. When
the Russians left Mauthausen and the Americans came in their place, I decided
to return to Poland, hoping that perhaps someone of my family would have
survived. To my great sorrow, I discovered in Poland that my entire
family had perished.

I remained in Poland until 1957, and then made aliya to Israel.
On the ship en route to Israel, I saw that one of the emissaries was wearing
a kippa. I had an idea: perhaps through him I would be able
to make contact with Elazar Goelman. He told me that he knew him,
and he gave me his address. I immediately phoned Elazar when I arrived
in Israel, and on that day he came with his brother to greet me.
Elazar informed Yoel Ciechanowicz of my arrival, who told Chana Wiener
of blessed memory. She came to see me the net day.

Thus did I renew contact with the natives of my hometown who were
living in Israel. From the first moment, they received me graciously
and enthusiastically.

Only very few natives of our town survived. In agony and
worn after the long path of agony in camps in various countries, they merited
to remain alive. After they were liberated, and after a period of
acclimatization, they regained their spark of life and their hope to reestablish
their broken lives.

Translator's Footnotes:

Hatikva (The Hope), is the national anthem of Israel.&nbsp
It predated the state, and was a Zionist theme song.

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